Brentford’s Harlee Dean has been stripped of the captaincy as Sheffield Wednesday plot a move to sign him according to a report from Get West London.

The 26-year-old defender has been at Brentford since 2012, making just under 200 appearances at Griffin Park in his five years at the club. He had become such a respected figure at the club that he was handed the captain’s armband ahead of the 2016/17 season, leading the Bees to 10th place in the Sky Bet Championship as well as winning the Supporters Player of the Year award.

However, Dean has been attracting interest from elsewhere. Sheffield Wednesday have been desperately looking for a new centre-back this summer and have already missed out on the likes of Sean Morrison and Johan Djourou. They have now moved on to Dean and are now looking to do their best to make sure he is an Owl before the end of the transfer window.

And the murmurings that he might be set to head north to Hillsborough will only increase after it was revealed he had been stripped of the captaincy because of the lack of certainty of his future. Nico Yennaris was given the armband for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup fixture against AFC Wimbledon.

Speaking about this, Brentford head coach Dean Smith said: “I had a chat with Harlee when we started pre-season. At the moment he’s in a bit of limbo with contract negotiations.

“With that going on it’s right that someone else carries the armband. He’s behind that and accepts that well.”